October 12, 2007

LaDuke speaks on water, environment

"Environmental activist and former Green Party vice presidential
candidate Winona LaDuke spoke at the University of Massachusetts Campus
Center last night on the topics of global warming and environmental
social justice.

LaDuke, an Ojibwe activist and author of the
1997 novel "Last Standing Woman," as well as several non-fiction books,
is a self-described "rural economist by training" who got her degree in
native economic development from Harvard University in 1982. The speech
covered issues ranging from the effects of western capitalist policies
on the environment to sustainable living and human rights with regards
to resources.

"A lot of people think that climate change is a
'new' problem," she said. "The reality is that it is a symptom of a
larger set of problems."

She stressed the importance of tackling the "daunting challenge" presented by global warming.

"We have combusted ourselves pretty much to the brink of oblivion," she said.

LaDuke placed the blame of many of the economic and environmental problems faced today on the forces of western imperialism.

"A
society based on conquest is not sustainable," she said. She added that
food sustenance becomes an environmental liability when the "average
food product travels 1,546 miles - and I'm not talking about kiwis from
Australia.

"Part of what I think we need to think about in this
millennium is how to make a society that has a resonance on this earth,
and not one based on empire," she said.

"We are the most
wasteful society anyone has ever known," said LaDuke. "We produce 50
trillion pounds of waste each year - and that's not including waste
water."

She went on to point out that over 1.7 billion people - including many in the European Union - are deprived of clean water.

"This
should be a basic human right; it should not be something you have to
buy," she said. "It should not be something owned by Nestle in
Massachusetts."

LaDuke also addressed the overburdening of the
nation's prison systems and what she described as a lack of funding for
education and school meal plans.

"We need to create an industry
in this society that is not based on human misery," said LaDuke, in
reference to the nation's prisons, which she described as "a growth
industry."